Currently, California-based electric car startup Fisker automotive is
sub-manufacturing its Karma
plug-in electric vehicle through Valmet Automotive in Finland.
Now thanks to a loan
of $528.7M USD from the Department of Energy, Fisker is moving
the focus of its production -- and the money and jobs that goes with
it -- to the United States.

The move became official at a
press
conference in Wilmington, Delaware this morning. Joined by
Delaware's Governor, Jack Markell, and Vice President Joe Biden,
Fisker's founder and CEO Henrik Fisker officially announced his
company's plans to purchase a closed GM plant and repurpose it to
produce his company's electric vehicles.

The plant was built
by GM in 1947 and was last used to produce the Pontiac Solstice and
Saturn Sky, both of which ended production last spring. It is
currently owned by Motors Liquidation, the government-organized
bankruptcy holding from GM that is seeking to sell off the
company's remaining stale assets. Fisker will get the plant at
a bargain price of $18M USD, leaving plenty of its loan funding for
the retooling, employment, and distribution costs. The
refurbishing and retooling of the plant is estimated to cost $175M
USD and will take three years to fully complete, though partial
production may start before that.

The plant sits on a spacious
142 acres of land and features over 3.2 million square feet of floor
space. Once retooled, it will be used to build a new,
more-affordable plug-in that Fisker is currently
cooking up, codenamed "Project Nina". Fisker
plans to release this new vehicle by 2012 and reach production levels
of 75,000-100,000 units annually by 2014 which is well above current
Karma production levels. The company says that half the
production will be sold domestically and approximately half of the
production will be exported and sold overseas, under his company's
current plan. It is targeting a price of under $40,000 for the
vehicle, after federal tax credits, ironically similar to the
speculated price of the 2011
Chevy Volt, produced by GM.

Mr. Fisker praised the plan
for the new plant. He describes, "This is a major step
toward establishing America as a leader of advanced vehicle
technology. Wilmington is perfect for high quality, low volume
production and will soon be the proud builder of world-class,
fuel-efficient Fisker plug-in hybrids."

Although Fisker's
current overseas production plans have caught some flak, more
criticism may be raised over the plant's use of unionized labor.
The plant will employ 2,000 workers, mostly UAW members. The
decision to keep the plant unionized is a rather atypical choice for
a startup auto firm. The plant will also lead to the employment
of approximately 3,000 supplier jobs in the U.S.

Gary Casteel,
UAW director responsible for the plant, cheered the decision to keep
the plant unionized, stating, "It gives me great pride to give
UAW Local 435 workers the opportunity to partner with Fisker
Automotive to create a greener America by building a plug-in hybrid
car that will compete globally."

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Yeah, but that was back when people put their nation ahead of self interests. Of course back then, there was no UN to save the world * , and they were intelligent and motivated enough to know that if they didn't get off their butts and build planes, ships, and tanks, they'd have no nation left. That was also back when the federal government was lean with limited bureaucracy and local constituent/special interest favoritism and crockery.

Actually, that is nowhere near true. President Truman was essentially put in office by the Pendergast machine that operated from KC. The corruption of today is just a lot slicker. Back then it wasn't 'play ball and get a check', it was 'play ball or we send some guys over'.

Organizations were just more motivated back then. Look how quickly SpaceShipOne was designed and built while the new Ares rocket won't go into service for another 5+ years. Pathetic.

quote: Organizations were just more motivated back then. Look how quickly SpaceShipOne was designed and built while the new Ares rocket won't go into service for another 5+ years. Pathetic.

That should tell you everything you need to know about government right there. The fact the Burj Dubai is coming right along while 8 years after 9/11 the new WTC still isn't completed should tell you all you need to know about red tape.

And yet you seemed to rail against companies and their profit motive in another post, seemingly defending unions, which are entities that share many properties with governments. Meh.

Also, note that in Dubai they have so much money they don't know what to do with it, while in this country we have to ration the cash - expecially when the retarded cowboy was spending all the money on the war and not reporting it in the federal budget. So ya see...

quote: expecially when the retarded cowboy was spending all the money on the war and not reporting it in the federal budget.

1) How cute. Still got Bush derangement syndrome? But Bush couldn't do a DAMN THING without Democrats in Congress, which has to approve everything before it even gets to the president's desk. You FAIL.

"Washington — Health care legislation taking shape in the House carries a price tag of at least $1 trillion over a decade, significantly higher than the target President Barack Obama has set, congressional officials said Friday as they struggled to finish work on the measure for a vote early next month. Democrats have touted an unreleased Congressional Budget Office estimate of $871 billion in recent days, a total that numerous officials acknowledge understates the bill’s true cost by $150 billion or more . That figure excludes several items designed to improve benefits for Medicare and Medicaid recipients and providers, as well as public health programs and more."